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Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

We moved into our home on the 18th December 1998 and decided to rename the property. My Mother in Law thought Holly Cottage had a nice festive ring and we placed this on the deeds. A few years later my Wife's Uncle searched the history of our home and discovered that it used to be a market garden and the owner's name was Henry Holly.

in three generations,
granny has three children
girl1, boy, girl2
girl2's older child (a boy) has the same birthday as girl1, the oldest child in her generation
and boy's youngest child (in a family with the same pattern as his own: girl, boy, girl) has the same birthday as girl2, i.e. the last child in a family with the identical pattern.
From granny's perspective: her oldest child has the same birthday as her oldest grandchild, and her youngest child has the same birthday as her youngest grandchild (of seven), in a family with the same pattern as her own.

I was having tea with a friend of a friend in an Oxford college. We were both from Delhi in India but did not share any common friends or networks from Delhi. We got talking about what we were studying- I was working on inequalities in Britain and her work turned out to be an anthropological study of a tribe in North East India on the Burmese border. She showed me some pictures of her field work and to my surprise l recognised my uncle and his house. Suddenly the world felt a lot smaller than I had thought before.

Whilst visiting relatives in the North of England (I was living in Oxford at the time) we decided to have a day out in Newcastle. On arrival the first thing we did was head for a coffee shop, where I noticed a lady I worked with in Oxford, I went over and said "Hello fancy seeing you here are you visiting too" she looked at me blankly, then smiled and said I think you are getting me mixed up with my twin sister - she lives in Oxford.

This happened 30 years ago. My sister and I were travelling back from France on the boat train during our summer holidays. We shared a carriage, on the train, with a young couple. We chatted. When I returned to college, in the September, the woman was not only at the same college as me but was in the same halls as I had been previously and in my old room! I did talk to her about it but she didn't remember my sister or I. When we talked about meeting on the train, this is when I realised she was in my old room.We had not talked about college or Sheffield where we were at college.

Susan and I were best friends at school, saw each other at lot socially (we noticed our thoughts/ideas coinciding enough to think we had something special going on).
We attended each others wedding (and I moved to a different county) and hadn't seen each other since.
Then we each fell pregnant with our first child, and discovered they were both due on the same day: 28th November 1990 - and were born on consecutive days.

I was visiting South Africa and took an excursion to Cape Point which included a boat trip to Seal Island. On the boat I was standing and seated in front of me was an American Lady of advanced years holding a young dark haired boy of about 2 years. The woman seated beside her commented what a lovely grandson. The American woman explained that she lIved in Brasilia and had adopted the child. I intervened in their conversation and said I have friends in Brasilia who have also adopted a child, their names are Ciro......she said not Ciro and Nicky A. They are my best friends!

Some years ago, I dreamt that my boss, who was well in her 40's, got married. I told her the next day. She laughed telling me that she had nobody in her life.
Two months later she told me she had met this wonderful man and they were getting married.

My son was travelling round the world in 2006 and one day rang me up from a hostel in New Zealand. After 20 minutes or so of conversation I casually picked up a book from a bookshelf and at the same time thought I would ask if he had had a chance to read anything on his travels. He replied that he had been at the hostel for a few days and had been reading a certain book from their stock of books. It was exactly the same book that I had casually selected from my bookshelf!

We were having a family holiday in the Algarve when the children were young and whilst sunbathing topless on the beach decided to cool off in the sea. As I was walking towards to water I heard a voice say 'hello Mrs R'. I looked up and saw it was my milkman and he wasn't looking at my face!